About half of the energy bill goes to your heating and cooling. So with making smart “green” decisions with your home’s HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning) you can have big savings on your energy bill.

We recommend that you change your air filter regularly. How often? Well, it’s best to check it every month. During winter and summer is when it’s most important to check due to heavy use. If your filter looks dirty, change it. Dirty filters will slow down air flow and it will actually make your system work harder than it needs to! Also, the filters prevent dirt and dust build up on your system – if you aren’t responsibly changing your filters it could result in expensive maintenance and early system failure.

Maintaining your car is important to keep it running effectively and to improve your gas mileage! Well maintaining your HVAC equipment is just as important. Having annual tune-ups done on your system will increase efficiency and also your comfort.

Keeping your equipment maintained also means that you prevent future problems as well as any other unwanted costs. EnergyStar suggests that you have a contractor do checkups when the time changes in spring and fall.

The Typical checkup should include:

□   Checking the thermostat settings. This ensures that the heating and cooling system keeps you comfortable when you are home and saves energy while you are away.

□  Making sure all electrical connections are tight and measure voltage and the current on motors. Any faulty connections can result in unsafe operation as well as reduce the life of major components needed to run your system.

□   Lubricating all the moving parts. Any parts that lack lubrication will cause friction – thus using more electricity.

□   Checking the condensate drain in your air conditioner, furnace, and/or heat pump (when in cooling mode). If a drain is plugged, it can cause water damage in the house as will also affect the indoor humidity levels.

□   Checking the controls of the system to be sure it’s in proper and safe operation.

□   Cleaning the evaporator/condenser air conditioning coils. If the coils are dirty it will decrease the system’s ability to keep your home cool. Dirty coils have other negative results as well, such as making the system run longer – which increases energy costs and decreasing the life of your system.

□   Checking the air conditioner’s refrigerant level and making any needed adjustments. Having too little or too much refrigerant will cause your system to be less efficient, increasing your costs and decreasing equipment life.

□   Cleaning and adjusting blower components. This will provide proper airflow for greater levels of comfort. Bad airflow can result in a 15% decrease in efficiency.

□   Checking all gas or oil connections, burner combustion and heat exchanger, gas pressure. Gas/oil connections are operating improperly is a fire hazard and can contribute to health problems. Any problems with the burner or heat exchanger can cause the system to operate less safely and efficiently.